The Village of Oak Park | 123 Madison St.  Oak Park, IL 60302 | village@oak-park.us

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Compost program diverts waste from landfills

The Village offers a food scrap composting collection program for residential households of up to five units. Participants receive a gray 96-gallon cart for weekly collection of organics, a three-gallon food scrap kitchen pail and a sample of compostable bags for food scraps. Both yard waste and food scraps may be placed in the organics cart, eliminating the need to purchase yard waste stickers. Bags for food scraps must be labeled compostable and meet the ASTM 64O0 standards. An organic cart subscription costs $15.68 per month, which is about the cost of one yard waste sticker and one yard waste bag per week. Residents can share an organic cart with one other neighbor to reduce the monthly cost. More information and an online registration form is available at www.oak-park.us/compostable

Options for apartment dwellers…Residents who live in multifamily buildings too large to participate in the Village collection program but still wish to compost may leave food scraps in the clearly labeled carts at one of four locations in the Village:

  • 102 N. Lombard Ave. – Adjacent to Central Water Pump Station
  • 1125 Ontario Ave. – Holley Court Parking Garage at the Marion Street entrance/exit near the bicycle racks
  • 720 North Blvd. – Avenue Parking garage near main entrance
  • 1010 N. Ridgeland Ave. – North Water Pump Station near corner of Ridgeland and Berkshire

​Scraps may be stored in ASTM 6400 standard compostable bags or wrapped in newspaper. Consider freezing scraps to ease transportation to the site. Plastic bags or other non-organic material placed into the cart will cause contamination requiring the cart contents be sent to the landfill. Any large multifamily or condo association can also contract independently with the Village’s contractor LRS or another provider for composting service. If contracting with LRS, large buildings will receive the Village’s negotiated rate. Building owners and condo associations can contact publicworks@oak-park.us for assistance with the compost contracting process.